When Magnus Öström’s debut Thread of Life emerged in 2011 it was perhaps inevitable it would be listened to in the context of its author’s huge personal loss, following the untimely death of Esbjörn Svensson in 2008, a best friend since childhood as well as intimate musical partner in EST for all of 15 years. The loss hung heavily over the album; written in the initial months following Svensson’s fatal diving accident, the recording is a doomy yet forceful suite of Öström originals. The second CD, also on the multi-award winning German ACT label, has the Roman God of Light of the title Searching for Jupiter shining down more optimistically on Öström, with its warmer melancholic mix of new member Thomas Karlsson’s attractively chiming acoustic piano vamps, Andreas Hourdakis’ post-Metheny dreamy guitar lyricism and a more poppy atmospheric jazz-rock sound to lighten up the texture. Even more than on its predecessor Öström shows he can write very strong thematic material, as Svensson did in EST, and arrange it lucidly, while allowing judicious space for improvisation. It’s a poignant as well as enjoyable recording from the 48-year-old drummer who came late to band leadership having been in a perfect group situation for so long. But Searching for Jupiter proves his debut was no one-off.